This article is from WeChat official account:Academic headlines (ID: SciTouTiao), author: YC, Liu Yi Xin, title figure from: Neuralink official website
On August 29th Beijing time, Elon Musk, the founder of the famous “Reality Iron Man”, SpaceX and Tesla, etc. ( Elon Musk), held a press conference for Neuralink, his own brain-computer interface company, to show the public the practical Neuralink equipment and automatic implant surgery equipment.
As soon as he came up, Musk was half an hour late.
Neuralink’s latest brain-computer equipment is here:
Health problems that brain-computer interface equipment can solve:
You can install a Neuralink device with a surgical robot in one hour:
Write brain signals:
Some details about Neuralink:
Inductive charging:
Three little pigs are on the scene: This pig was implanted with Neuralink and then removed to demonstrate its upgradeability.
Three little pigs appeared: This pig was implanted with a Neuralink and demonstrated the reading of brain signals.
Neuralink implants can track various brain activities:
Three little pigs appear: There are two Neuralinks on the pig’s head.
In July this year, Neuralink has obtained a breakthrough neural connection technology from the FDA:
Musk also posted a Neuralink recruitment advertisement on the spot. Are you excited?
Advanced Neuralink company
Brain-computer interface(brain-computer interface) refers to the direct connection path created between the human or animal brain and external equipment . The human brain connected in series by the brain-computer interface can transmit signals and exchange information with external devices.
It can be expected that when this technology develops to a certain extent, people will be able to “plug in” external devices to improve the computing power of the biological brain.
Neuralink, a company co-founded by Musk and eight other founders, is headquartered in San Francisco and has been cooperating with the University of California Davis(UC Davis)< /span>Cooperate in research and develop implantable brain-computer interface technology.
And NeuWhat ralink wants to do is to develop a powerful enough brain-computer interface to cure human brain diseases and give the human brain more powerful functions.
In order to better accomplish its goals, Neuralink’s team has recruited many well-known scientists in the industry. For example, Philip Sabes, professor of physiology at the University of California, San Francisco (Philip Sabes), and Timothy Gardner, professor of biology at Boston University.(Timothy Gardner) etc. Their experience and research results are of great significance to Neuralink.
As early as 2016, Musk discussed with the public the concept of a science fiction novel—neural lace, that is, the interaction between human brain and machine; in April 2017, the website Wait But Why wrote an article about Neuralink’s hope in the short term Plans to develop equipment for the treatment of severe brain diseases within the country.
In July 2019, Musk claimed that a surgical robot will be used to implant thin yarns into the human brain and connect it to an external computer processing unit. I hope that the two wireless devices can eventually be connected to obtain the greatest degree of freedom and flexibility.
At that time, Neuralink stated that the company has conducted technical tests on mice and apes and achieved success, and will start human clinical trials in 2020.
In fact, Neuralink’s brain-computer interface technology works by drilling small holes in the brain and inserting linear electrodes that avoid blood vessels. This is just like Tesla’s promotion of level 5 fully autonomous driving, how advanced technology can land , Will depend on the approval of the regulatory authorities. It is conceivable that it will be “quite difficult” for equipment related to brain-computer interface technology to obtain approval from the US Food and Drug Administration.
Science fiction and reality of brain-computer interface
External devices that can directly or indirectly connect to our minds already exist. The most well-known example is the electroencephalogram (EEG). This instrument senses the bioelectricity generated by human brain activity on the scalp and amplifies it into distinguishable brain electrical signals.
In a sense, when you are undergoing EEG testing, your brain is already connected to this huge machine. So broadly speaking, this is also a “brain-computer interface”.
The brain is the human nerve center. As one of the most important organs of the human body, it undertakes the basic task of maintaining human survival. At the same time, almost all high-level neural activities are done in the brain. If the human body is regarded as a computer, then the brain is the computing core of this “human PC”. Ordinary computers can improve performance through external hard drives, external graphics cards, external memory, etc. Some scientists believe that such “improvements” can also be applied to the human brain.
The emergence of this view eventually formed the driving force for the development of brain-computer interfaces.
At present, people divide the brain-computer interface into three categories according to the closeness of the connection between the brain-computer interface and the brain:
Invasive brain-computer interface:
When you choose such a brain-computer interface, then you have to face the fate of the machine directly plugging into the gray matter of the brain. This type of brain-computer interface can obtain high-quality neural signals, but at the same time it also brings serious immune rejection.
Currently, this equipment is mainly used to treat diseases. Scientists use invasive brain-computer interface to reconstruct the patient’s special feelings and restore paralysisAbility.
Before Tesla turned out, no one thought that electric cars would successfully enter the market. Before the rise of SpaceX, people didn’t even think that low-cost rockets could become a great weapon. This time, will Musk prove himself again? In the face of future ethical controversies, can Neuralink still stand up? Nobody knows. No one knows what the real situation is.
Of course, there are comments in Silicon Valley that Musk’s motives are not as great as he claims-Preventing against AI threats or helping humans is all in order to whitewash themselves and the company as a “righteous” party. , In order to obtain greater profits.
But we can’t deny that Elon Musk is a renegade genius. He chose a road off the beaten track, and no one knows what the end will be.
We are born at the right time, we can be a general audience, silently watching the latest trailer of this sci-fi blockbuster; we can also choose to do everything we can to help the film to a successful conclusion, just like Musk.
But no matter which way it is, it is destined to be a different era.
Data source:
https://www.neuralink.com/
https://twitter.com/elonmusk
https://twitter.com/neuralink
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/elon-musks-neuralink-update-how-to-watch-start-time-working-device-demo/
https://www.zdnet.com/article/elon-musk-update-to-neuralink-computer-brain-tech-is-coming-soon/
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/elon-musk-sets-update-on-brain-computer-interface-company-neuralink -for-august-28/ar-BB16x6hp
https://waitbutwhy.com/2017/04/neuralink.html
https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-neuralink-stream-music-brians
This article is from WeChat official account:Academic headlines (ID: SciTouTiao), author: YC, Liu Yi Xin